the Breeze

FAST BROADBAND 2017 DATE FOR BAY ISLANDS

Superfast broadband is coming to more than 64,800 homes and businesses in Redlands under an accelerated three-year NBN rollout.

And for the Bay Islands, installation will be coming in 2017.

North Stradbroke Island has not featured in the latest NBN predictions, but Federal Member for Bowman, Andrew Laming, believes the ‘big island’ will get the NBN in 2018,

He said NBN Co forecast that Redlands would be well ahead of the national 2019 target.

“We’ve slipped about six months behind on our original 2016 target, with about 50% of Redlands covered by mid-2017 instead of the predicted 60% by the end of 2016,” he said.

“However, we’re well ahead of the expected completion date of 2019.

“Rolling out the NBN is a huge job, it’s very expensive and the estimates only become accurate closer to the actual rollout. But these achievements are very close to our election commitments.”

Mr Laming said NBN Co today had released its full construction schedule, providing Australians with the greatest detail yet on when the NBN will reach them.

“The new rollout plan, which extends out to September 2018, provides all of Redlands with type of technology and likely construction periods,” he said.

Across Redlands thousands of residents will benefit from broadband upgrades in areas including:

“Rollout progress under Labor was slow and costly,” Mr Laming said.

“The NBN only managed to connect 51,000 premises to its networks during the previous term of Government.

Mr Laming said the Australian Financial Review editorial on Thursday 15 October said “Labor has no credibility in this area” and described Labor’s plan for the NBN as “an expensive joke”.

“I recognise that Redlanders want fast broadband as soon as possible; allowing them to stream movies, surf the web, and complete schoolwork online, – all at one time. Businesses will also benefit from the vastly higher bandwidth available,” he said.

“The plan demonstrates the Coalition has cleaned up the NBN mess left by Labor which would have left many Australians waiting a decade for better broadband.

“I will continue to keep Redlands up to date as more accurate progress data is received.”